


SAVAGE

by shaejxo



Category: N/A - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-10-17 06:46:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17555384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaejxo/pseuds/shaejxo
Summary: Alana is heading back home for the first time in nearly 20 years when her father (who is one of the more powerful drug lord's in his city)  is killed. She never had a good relationship with him. Her mother died during her birth and he always resented her for it. When she was 7, her aunt came and took her to live with her and raised her like her own. Through the years, Alana did her own digging on her father and discovered a lot of secrets that he kept hidden. Alana takes this opportunity to shake the table and expose her father's history and possibly taking over the "family business."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic. The beginning is a little rocky but I promise the deeper into the story we get, it gets crazy. The story is based in Detroit, MI from the early 2000's (flashbacks) to current dates (2019).

Alana had just arrived at the airport. She boarded her flight, headphones in. When she sits down, she takes note of the different faces around her. This will be her first time going home in 18 years. A whole 18 years since she’s seen her brother. He would reach out here and there, but this last time he called, he told her that their father, Benny, was killed and she needed to come back.  
Alana never had a relationship with her dad. Her mother died during her birth and she felt that her dad blamed her and she was a constant reminder of how he lost his wife. He would always tell Alana that she looked just like her Mom. But, that’s all he would ever say. He never said ‘I love you’ and never really hugged her. Her brother on the other hand, was her dad’s pride and joy.  
As the plane began taking off, Alana closed her eyes, remembering all of those years ago.

\--

 

18 years ago:  
Little Alana was sitting at the kitchen table, eating her favorite cereal. Her brother Brandon and his best friend Camren was sitting across from her playing with their toy cars. When Alana was done eating, she got up and put her bowl in the sink and sat back down at the table. She asked her brother, “B, can I play too?”  
“NO, Lana”  
“Why?”  
Brandon just gives her a frustrated look. Camren notices and picks up one of his cars.  
“Here, you can just play with this one, Lana.”  
Alana blushes and takes the car, “thank you.”

She sits with them playing. Every so often, Brandon would push her car off the table and laughing when she got upset. Camren would just pick it up and hand it back to her with a small smile. Camren was always nice to Alana even when Brandon wasn’t. Alana and Brandon got along most times, but sometimes, he just got in one of his moods.

Their dad, Benny, walks into the kitchen, sitting down at the table looking at his phone. Alana jumps up and walks over to him.  
“Hey, daddy!” she smiles, grabbing at his arm.  
“Hey Lana.” he nudges her hand off. “What you need?”  
“I wanna sit with you.” she stands there, grinning big.  
“Ain’t you playing with the cars?” he looks at her.  
“Yes.--”  
“Well, go over there and play.”

Alana sits back down and pushing the car back and forth on the table. She leans her head into the palm of her hand, looking sad and defeated. 

“Aye, Cam.” Benny said, looking down, doing something in his phone.  
“Yes?”  
“Ya’ moms called. She said you can stay over a couple more nights.”  
“Okay.” Camren smiled ear to ear, laughing and pushing Brandon’s arm, saying to him, “more time to dunk on you.”  
“Man, shut up! You can’t even reach the rim.”  
“You can’t either.”  
“I’m taller, which means I’m closer lil’ nigga.” Brandon says, teasing Camren over their 2 inch height difference.

“AYE. Watch yo’ damn mouth.” Benny barked.

The boys look at each other with wide eyes, smirking. They go back to playing with their cars. Alana just watched on as the whole interaction happened. 

Benny gets a phone call. He gets up and starts walking out the kitchen. Talking low, “Aye, didn’t i tell you to stop calling my fucking phone?”  
\--  
Alana was running down the stairs in her swimsuit, ready to get outside in the pool when she heard a familiar voice call her name. Her Auntie Lynda was there. She was staying with them for the 4th of July holiday before her move to Florida. Lynda lived in New York, but had gotten a new job in Miami and wanted to come spend time with her family before heading down there.  
Alana jumped up in Lynda’s arms, hugging her and kissing her cheek. 

“Oh my God, baby girl, you’re so big. I missed you!”  
“I missed you too TT.” she smiled.  
“Look at this wild hair.” Lynda giggled, rubbing her fingers in Alana’s big puff.  
“Daddy can’t do my hair. I brushed it myself.”  
“Well we’ll get this together later, okay?”  
“Okay!” Alana said, jumping down and running outside.

“Brandon, Auntie Lynda is here!” Alana yelled out to her brother.

Brandon and Camren came in to greet Lynda. She hugged them and talked about how big they were. She asked Camren about his mom and they all chatted a bit until Benny told them to go back outside. 

“They’re getting too big, too fast.” Lynda said, sitting on the couch next to Benny.  
“Yeah.” Benny says quietly.  
“And that Lana… looking just like Avery. It’s crazy.” 

Benny doesn’t respond. Lynda notices and turns to study his face. She always knew when her brother was hiding something. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Benny turns and just looks at her.

“B… what is it? What aren’t you telling me?”

He sighs, “Ain’t really no easy way to say this. But, it’s getting harder to deal with her.”

Lynda just sat there with a furrowed brow, looking at him confused.  
“What you mean? With lana?” she asked.

He sits there for a moment. “Yeah.” he whispers. “I know this sound shitty Lyn, but i can’t even look at her no more.”

Lynda sit there shocked at what her brother’s words. 

“Like you said, she looks just her mama. I find myself getting pissed when i see her running around here.”

He sits up, with his elbows on his knees, rubbing his palms over his face.  
“Avery should be here. That was the only woman i ever gave a fuck about. I stopped wildin’ in these streets for her.”

“That’s your baby girl, Benny.” Lynda shakes her hand, sitting up next to him.

“Don't you think I know that! but you want me to be honest right?” 

“Yeah. I just...I’m not really understanding. Like what are you saying?”  
Benny doesn’t respond.  
"You don't want her?"

Benny stays silent.

“Wow. how long have you been feeling like this?” she looks at the side of his face.

“A while, i guess.” he says quietly.

“Do you love her?”

“I mean, yeah. That’s my daughter.”

“Do you love her because you’re suppose to love your kids?” she asked.

“I love my kids, Lyn. But with her it's different. It's easy with Brandon. But, Lana? ...Every time i look at her. Every birthday. It’s a reminder of the day I lost Av.”

“Why didn’t you talk to me?”

“How the fuck was I suppose to?”

“Well, I-- I don’t know.”  
There's a brief moment of silence.

“I just told you, so now what?” he turns to look at her.

“She’s seven. She needs love, Benny. If you ain’t over what happened to Avery by now, you’ll ruin that girl.”

“What the fuck am I gon’ do then?”

Lynda pauses. She opens her mouth to talk, but the kids came running in interrupting her. “Hey dad, can we can get some popsicles?” Brandon asked.

“Yeah, go’head.”

They all take off back toward the kitchen. Benny and Lynda looks at each other. Benny turns back facing forward and Lynda finally says, “I’ll take her.”  
Benny doesn’t say anything. His phone starts to ring. He picks it up. Not much was said to the person on the other end besides, What’s up and on my way.

“Aye, I have to make a drop. We’ll talk about this later.” he says, standing.  
Lynda stands up next to him, grabbing his arm. “There’s nothing else to talk about. When i leave, I’m taking her with me. I can’t let you fuck her up. She don’t deserve that.”

“Do what you want. I don’t care.”

He walks out and Lynda stands there, biting the side of her mouth. Her eyes get watery but a tear doesn’t fall. She takes a deep breath and starts walking into the kitchen where Alana, Brandon and Camren are and yells, “Who wants pizza for dinner?”

They yell back a series of Me’s. Lynda rubs Alana’s big puff and smiles down at her. Alana looks up at her Auntie and smiles back. “Let’s order some pizza baby girl.”


	2. SAVAGE CH.2

Chapter 2.

Benny never did much for the 4th of July. He always said it’s the white man’s freedom day. So he just barbequed some food for his sister and the kids. After a few hours of sitting out in the backyard with his family, he received a phone call and said he’d be back later. Soon after, Brandon and Camren walked over to Camren’s house for the rest of the day. Lynda would be at the house with Alana alone for a few hours. She figured this would be the perfect moment to talk to her.   
She took a moment and stayed outside to map out how’d she talk to her. Her niece was only 7, but that little girl was smart and you could never pull one over on her. She got it together and walked inside to find Alana sitting in the family room, playing with her dolls and watching Spongebob.

Lynda stood in the doorway for a moment, just watching Alana. She then tapped on the door twice to get her nieces attention.

“Hey, baby girl.” she walks in and sits on the couch behind Alana.  
“Hey, TT” she smiled.  
“Whatcha’ doing?”  
“Trying to fix Barbie’s hair. She messed it up in the pool yesterday.”  
“She should have braided it.” Lynda laughed.  
“I tried to tell her. But, she don’t never wanna listen to nobody.”

Lynda shakes her head, laughing. “How about you take a break for a second and come sit with me. I wanna talk to you about something.”

Alana gets up from the floor and jumps on the couch, sitting next to her Auntie. Lynda smiles down at her and picks Alana up and sits her on her lap. She kisses her forehead and just hugs her.

“TT, you are really killing me.” Alana

Lynda laughs and pulls back. “Girl, what! I was not killing you. Don’t be dramatic.”  
Alana looks at her with big eyes, “You was! I was almost outta’ here.”

They both laugh. “Alright baby girl. C’mon now, I need to talk to you.”  
Alana pats Lynda’s shoulder, “Okay TT. Tell me what’s going on.”

Lynda just sits, looking at Alana for a second. Sometimes, she is amazed that Alana is only 7. Her niece has always come off as an old soul.

Lynda lets out a low, soft chuckle, “You are something else.”  
Alana just smiles.  
“Anyways… You know TT is leaving on tomorrow, right?”  
“Yes.”  
“Well...uhh” she pauses for a moment. “What if i told you that you’ll be going with me?”

Alana smiles so big, you could see all of her teeth. She loved being with her auntie.

“I am?” she asked.  
“Yes.” Lynda gave her a closed mouth smile.  
“Is Brandon coming too?”  
“Umm…No. It’ll just be me and you.”   
“Why? Is it just us girls?” Alana looked confused.

Lynda paused, looking off, trying to figure out the right words. “Baby girl, i need you to listen very closely, okay?” she said, holding the sides of Alana’s face, looking in her eyes.

“Okay.” Alana nodded.  
“You’re gonna come with me to Florida. I’m taking you with me and you’ll be living with me from now on.”

“Why?” Alana asked with furrowed brows. She started to look almost disappointed. Lynda could feel her emotions rising. She knew she needed to hurry and explain this the best she could before she started to cry.

“Umm, well… Me and your daddy think it’s for the best.”

“Daddy wants me to go?”

“No, no... he just, uhh… you’re growing up so fast and there’s only so much your daddy can do. Pretty soon, you’ll be growing into a young lady and I can be there for you better than daddy can.”

“But…” alana looks down at the ground and back up at Lynda. “Why do we have to go to Florida? Why can’t you just stay here with us?” 

“I have a new job in Florida.”

“Can’t you just get a job here?”

“It’s not that easy, Lana.”

Alana doesn’t respond. She just puts her head down. Lynda rubs her back. She knew this would be a lot for her young niece to process. Alana just gets up from Lynda’s lap and sits back down on the floor with her dolls. She picks up her Barbie and just holds it. She had nothing to say. She didn’t know how to feel. 

“You can take all of your clothes and toys with you. Whatever you need.” Lynda said, kneeling behind her.

“Okay.” Alana said just above a whisper, but Lynda heard her. She decided to go to her room to give her niece some space.

Eventually Alana went up to her room and hours passed without her coming out. Lynda would go and peek in to check on her and Alana would just be sitting on the floor, watching tv. Her face almost emotionless. Her brother had come home and asked her if she wanted to play, but she didn’t want to, so he left her alone and came downstairs to play his video game. Pretty soon, it was time for dinner and Lynda called Alana down. But she had fallen asleep. Lynda didn’t bother to wake her. Benny never came back in that night.

 

\--

When Lynda woke up the next morning, she got up and walked over to Alana’s room. When she peeked in, to her surprise Alana was already up. She was sitting up, watching cartoons. Lynda slowly made her way in. Alana looked up to her auntie as she at down next to her. 

“Good Morning, baby girl.” Lynda said with a small smile.

“Morning, TT.” Alana turned back to watch tv.

“How long you been up?”

“I don’t know. It was still dark outside. ”

Lynda just sat there for a moment, watching what Alana was watching. Then she stood up and turned to Alana.  
“Well, how about you go wash up and go downstairs and get some cereal while i start packing.”

“Okay.”

She gets up and goes to do what she’s told and Lynda starts putting some of Alana’s stuff in some bags. 

“Oh my God. This girl has so much shit.” Lynda said to herself.

“What are you doing?”  
She turns to see Brandon standing in the doorway, watching her. “Uhh… I’m--I’m packing up Lana’s things. She’s gonna be leaving with me later.”

“Why?” he asked. Looking confused and a bit hurt.

Before she could answer, Alana yells that Camren was there. Brandon quickly turned around to walk away, running right into Alana. He tries to hurry past her, almost knocking her down so she didn’t see the tears in his eyes. He wipes his face and runs downstairs.   
Alana stands in front of the door.

“Brandon’s mad at me.” she says, starting to cry.  
Lynda hurrys over to her and kneels down to hug her.

“No, no. He’s not mad at you. He’s just, he’s… a little sad.”  
She holds Alana face. She still crying. “Look at me. Baby girl. He’s not mad at you. You hear me?”

Alana just nods her head and wipes her tears. Lynda kisses her forehead. She starts to cry herself. 

\----

When Brandon ran downstairs, he went right out the front door where Camren was waiting for him. He sits down on the porch and lays his head in her arms, crying. Camren sits next to him, “What’s wrong, B?”

“My Auntie taking Lana.”

“What...Why?” Camren asked, holding Brandon’s shoulder.  
Brandon lifts his head, looking forward. “I don’t know. She up there, packing all her stuff.”

Benny’s car pulls into the driveway. He gets out of the driver seat and walks up on the porch. Looking at his son, “What’s wrong with you?”

Brandon looks at Benny with rage in his eyes.  
“BOY! Who you looking at like that?” Benny barks.

“Why Lana leaving?”

He shakes his head and moves around Brandon. “I’m not doing this right now.”  
He goes in the door and walks right into Lynda who is carrying bags of Alana’s clothes. They just stare at each other for a moment before Lynda rolls her eyes and brushed past him to go take the bags to the car. Alana is right behind her and stops on the porch. Brandon gets up and grabs his sister.   
“You not going nowhere.” he says to her. 

She puts her arms around him. Seeing him cry triggered her tears to start back. The just held each other. Camren walks up to them, putting his arm over Brandon shoulder. They stood there just like that as they watched Lynda puts bags in her trunk. 

Lynda kneels down in front of the kids. “It’s time to go baby girl.” rubbing Alana’s hand.  
“Why does she have to go?” Brandon cries.

Lynda grabs her nephew and hugs him tight. “It’s a lot you can’t understand right now.”  
She leans back to look in his eyes. “You can come visit whenever you want. Okay?”

Brandon nods and cries harder.   
Lynda walks back into the house. Benny is sitting on the couch, looking at the floor.   
“Are you gonna at least say bye to your daughter?” she asks him, crossing her arms.

“Goodbyes make shit worse, Lyn. You of all people should know that.” he stands up.

Lynda shakes her head, “You are so fucking pathetic. But… it’s been real, Ben. Have a good life, bro.” She turns and walks back out the door.   
“C’mon baby girl.” 

Brandon grabs Alana again and hugs her tight. “I love you, Lana.”

“Love you too.” she cries into his chest. 

She starts to walk away and sees Benny standing in the doorway. She looks up at him with tears in her eyes. “Daddy…” she cries.

“Your Auntie waiting on you.”

Alana breaks down, crying harder. Lynda walks up and picks her up to comfort her. She looks at Benny with hate, rubbing Alana’s back. She takes her to the car and puts her in the backseat. Camren runs down to the car and Lynda moves out of the way and lets him say goodbye to her.  
“Here.” he hands Alana a toy car. “You always play with this one, so you should take it.”

Alana wipes her tears, “thank you.” she smiles.  
He gives her a hug and runs back to the porch with Brandon. They stood there watching Lynda’s truck pull out the driveway and drive off.

\-----

“You know… it doesn’t feel like it right now, but everything is going to be okay, Lana.”

“Daddy didn’t say bye.” she says, looking out the window.  
“I know, baby girl. This isn’t easy for any of us, but it all work out. I promise.”

“If you say so.”

When Alana turned and looked at Lynda in the rearview mirror, her eyes didn’t have sadness in them anymore. She had changed. Lynda could see pain and pure anger in her eyes. She would do her best to love and support Alana, but she knew that she would never be same after this day.

\-----


	3. SAVAGE - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

CURRENT TIME:

As Alana is sitting in the backseat of her Uber, she can’t take her attention away from the city sites as she looks out of her window as they ride through her old neighborhood,. Some things are the same but some are very different since she left. Her old elementary school was shut down and boarded up and the park she use to play in had grass as tall as a truck. There wasn’t many kids outside like when she was younger. 

Alana knew she was getting close so she texted her brother that she was 5 minutes away. Soon after, the Uber turned onto Chicago Blvd and Alana’s palms instantly became sweaty. If she had to admit, she was nervous. It had been 18 years since she’d been to this house. As the car pulled up, Brandon was already standing on the porch waiting for her. When she stepped out, he walked down to help her get her bags. When they finally made it in the house, he dropped her duffle on the floor and immediately grabbed her. They hugged each other, tightly.  
“I missed you.” he whispered.

“I missed you too.”

Brandon took a deep breath and stepped back, smiling at Alana.  
“Man! My little sister ain’t little no more.” he laughed.

She slid her hands into her back pockets, smiling. “I know right. You ain’t little no more either. What you been doing? Hitting the gym like 3 times a day?” she said, smacking his chest with the back of her hand.  
“I be doing a little something.” making boxing gestures with his hands.  
As the both laugh, Alana just shakes her head, admiring her brother. He was always a good looking kid, but to see how he has grown up really hit her. She couldn’t help but to think how life could’ve been if they had the chance to grow up together. After a few years with her Auntie, Lynda got married and had two kids of her own. So Alana was the “oldest” and the protector. This moment just made her wish she could’ve gotten the full big brother experience. 

“So how you holding up?” she asked him.

“I’m good.” he shrugged. “Doing the best I can, I guess.”

Alana looks down at the floor an awkward silence takes over them.

“So, ummm you hungry or something? I know it’s your first day in. We can order something… and just chill?”

“Yeah, we can do that.” she smiles.

“Alright.”

Brandon picks up Alana’s bags and starts walking to the stairs.  
“Do you want your old room?” he ask.

“Hmm.. That one guest room still has a king size?” she says, turning her head to the side.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I want that one.” she points at him.

Brandon shakes his head, laughing. He takes her bags upstairs.

\---

Alana and Brandon were sitting in the kitchen talking and laughing. Alana felt good talking to her brother. They were able to just catch up without it being too weird. She was honestly scared about this whole thing but he made her feel welcomed.  
There was a knock at the front door. Brandon made his way to the front to get it. Alana heard another guy’s voice talking. For some reason, she felt like she knew this voice. She got up and stood in the doorway to the living room. She leaned against the wall, folding her arms. Brandon and this mysterious guy stood in the middle of the room having what looked like a serious conversation, so she decided not to interrupt. As she stood there, the guy looks up at her for a moment before looking back at Brandon, completely flustered.

“You look a little puzzled, bruh.” Brandon says with a smirk. Trying to hold back his laugh.  
The man doesn’t say anything. He just turns his head to stare at Alana.  
Alana raises her eyebrows with amusement, “Hi.”

Again, the man doesn’t say anything.  
“Damn, Lana. You got this man speechless.” Brandin says laughing. Unable to hold it together anymore.

“LANA! This ain’t lil Lana.” The man says point his thumb in her direction.

“Wow. Nice to see you too, Camren.” Alana says with huge smile.

“Man. C’mere.”

Camren gives Alana a tight hug.  
“I guess I can’t really call you lil Lana no more, huh?”

“Hell nah. I’m big Lana now, boy.” She laughs.

“Aye, bro. I gotta shoot a move real quick. I’ll be right back.” Brandon says, looking at his phone, typing a message.

“Alright, fasho.”

Brandon gets his keys and heads out the door.

“You want some pizza? We got plenty left in here.” Alana says as she turns to walk back into the kitchen.

“Yeah. A nigga starving. You know B’s ass wasn’t gonna offer.”

“Hell! He only fed my ass because he missed me.”

Alana and Camren sit at the table. Camren doesn’t wait a second to dive into the pizza. He catches Alana staring at him. It’s almost like she was in awe of the sight in front of her.  
“You like what you see?” He asks with a low chuckle.

She looked like a deer caught in headlights. “I-” she stutters, looking down with a blush. “You just look different is all.” she shrugs.

“I can say the same for you.”

“I mean… It’s has been a long time.”

“Yeah” his voice trails off. “What you been doing though? You go to school or anything?”

“Yeah, but I dropped out. It wasn’t really my thing you know. Only did it because my Ma-” She stopped herself. “My Auntie wanted me to.”

“You don’t have to be politically correct with me. I understand.”

Alana nods her head, looking off.

“But, uhh, everything turned out good for the most part?” he asked.

“Yeah. Looking back at it, I’m glad she took me. She loved me the way I needed. Took care of me. Motivated me. I’m the bad bitch that I am today because of her.” she smiled.

“Oh, straight?” They both laughed at that.  
Their laughs faded out and an awkward silence fell over them.

“You know… i missed you, Lana.” Camren finally said.  
She smiled at him. “It took awhile for to get use to things around here after you left. I just kept expecting you to run downstairs, asking to play with us.”

Alana sits up with her elbows on the table, placing her face in her palms.  
“I still have your toy car.” she whispered. “I could never get rid of it.”

“I hoped that you would.” he says leaning on the table to be closer to her. “So you wouldn’t forget about me.”

Alana couldn’t hide her blush if she wanted to. “Forget about you? That’s impossible.”

Camren is now blushing. Thinking back to the childhood crush he had on Alana. He never told Brandon about it or that he gave Alana the toy car. He never really suspected that Alana realized he had a crush on her. Seeing her behavior with him right now and knowing she kept the car brought back every feeling he had as a kid. 

“You were always nice to me.” she said. “Even when Brandon wanted to be a little dickhead. You were still cool with letting your homie’s annoying little sister, hang with y’all.”  
“What can I say? I’m a nice guy.” he winks at her.

“Oh, being a nice guy must’ve been why all the older girls were always on you and Brandon’s heads?” she laughed.

Camren was taken back at that. For one, because he didn’t know she noticed that and that she remembers. Him and Brandon were a bit popular in the neighborhood with the older, middle school girls. Little did Alana know, it had only gotten worse as they got older.

“I mean…” He shrugs, “I don’t know.”

“Mhmm, sure.”

“But that shit don’t even matter. In my head, you were my bae.”

Camren’s mouth was moving faster than his brain and he didn’t even realize he said that until Alana asked, “I was your what?”  
He couldn’t help but to smile from ear to ear in embarrassment. He put his head down on his arms, trying to hide his big smile. He looks at her, “Yeah. I wasn’t really worried about them hoodrats.”

She pinches his cheek, “Awww.”  
Camren rolls his eyes, playfully. He grabs her hand and rubs the back of it with his thumb. He opens his mouth to speak but they hear the front door open and shut.

“YO!” Brandon yells.  
Alana snatches her hand back. “In the kitchen.”  
Brandon walks in, “Damn boy. Yo hungry ass can smell a pizza a mile away.”

“Man, shut yo ass up. Everything go smooth?” Camren asked.

“Yeah. Everything is back to normal at the shops. I got Dante on watch.”

“Alright, cool. Any word yet on who got Ben?”

Brandon eyes get big and he does a quick glance to Alana and back to Camren.

“What?” Alana asked. “What he mean by that?”

“I was gonna fill you in later.”

“What the fuck is he talking about? Fill me in about what?”  
Her voice is laced with confusion and anger. She had an idea of what Camren was referring to. She just needed her brother to say it out loud.

“Please don’t fucking tell me you looking for killed Benny?”

“Yeah.” he whispered. 

“Wow.” She stood up and began walking out. She gets to the end of the hallway and turns back. “The move you had to make… drugs?” she asked Brandon.

“Lana.” his face read guilty and that’s all Alana needed.

She stood there, frozen with shock. She couldn’t move. The silence filled the space between them. Camren stood up, “I’m sorry man. I’m gonna go.”  
“No. You stay your ass right there.” Alana says before turning around and walking out the front door. She walks about a block before pulling out her phone to get an Uber. As she stood there waiting for the Uber, Brandon comes walking toward her. 

“Alana! I was gonna talk to you about it.”

“When?” she shouts. “I’ve been here all damn day and yo goofy ain’t said shit. You really just been out doing the same shit that got his bitch ass killed. You think that’s smart?”

“You need to chill the fuck out!”

“No. I don’t have to do shit. You won’t be happy until i have to bury yo ass too”

“Lana, stop. That ain’t going to happen.”

“What makes you so damn sure?”

“Listen to me. When we find out who did this, they ass is done and that’s it.”

Alana is fighting back tears. Her Uber is 1 minutes away, but that’s not soon enough.

“How long have you been doing this?” she asked.  
“Pops got us started when we were 17.” he said, looking at her with apologetic eyes. 

“We?” she asked with furrowed brows.

“Yeah. Me and Cam. I been running shit since he got killed.”

“You were suppose to be better than him, B.” she said lowly.

Right as she said that, the Uber arrived. They didn’t exchange anymore words. She gave her brother one last look as tears started rolling down her face. She got in the car and Brandon watched as the car drove off.

As Alana sat in the back of the Uber, she opened her text messages. She found the name ‘Cali’ and sent them a message.

Alana: We have a problem. Brandon is deeper in this than I thought.

Cali: DAMN! Is there a way to get him out the way?

Alana: Not sure yet. We’ll figure this out. I’ll call you when I get in.

After sending the last message, Alana gets a notification on her Instagram. She had a new follower and new DM message. It was Camren. 

‘I’m sorry. Please text me.’


	4. Chapter 4 : SAVAGE

Chapter 4

Alana was woken up from the form under her moving and the sound of a phone ringing. So rolled over to her side of the bed and hit one of those good morning stretches. Clenching her butt cheeks and making the ugliest sound. The sun was bright, so she knew it was close to the afternoon. She sat up and checked some unread text she had and sat there a little too zoned out until a deep voice shook her from her daydream.  
“Aye, sorry for waking you. Good morning.”

Alana gave a half smile, “Good morning.”

\----

The Night Before:

Alana waited until she made it to her destination to respond to Camren. She really didn’t know if she wanted to hear what he had to say. But, that longtime crush got the best of her. She couldn’t ignore him. She texted him.  
Alana: Hey, this Lana.  
Camren: Hey. Can we talk?  
Camren: Just let me explain some shit.  
Alana: Sure.

Camren called her but she sent him to voicemail. She texted him back instead.  
Alana: Not on the phone.  
Camren: Why? How are we gonna talk then?

Alana sent him her location.   
Alana: Elton Park Lofts 2125 Eighth St. Apt D1

After about 20 minutes, he texted her that he was there. Within minutes, she hears 3 knocks at the door. When she opens it, she sees him looking guarded. Shoulders tense and jaws clenched. Like he was ready for a fight at any moment. She stands back allowing room for him to walk in. He walks in scanning the room before finally relaxing.

“Whose place is this?” he asked.

“Can I trust you?”

Camren’s eyebrows become one as he looked at her. “Yeah. What the fuck is going on?”

“Are you sure? ‘Cause I can’t tell you shit unless I know I can.”

“Yes, Lana! You can trust me.”

“Alright.” she whispers. She walks over to the couch and sits down. Camren follows. 

“This my place.”

“What--” Alana put up her hand to hush him.

“I got it awhile back thinking I was ready to come back here. But, I couldn’t do it. So, I rented it out. My tennant just moved about a month ago, so I’m here.”

Camren just nodded his head, biting the side of mouth. Not really sure what to say.

“Don’t tell Brandon my business.”

“I won’t. Not my shit to tell. I told you, you can trust me. I’m a little confused, but that ain’t my business.”

“Alright, well that ain’t why you here. What is it you wanna explain so bad?”

Camren told her everything. From how Benny started training them at 15 to know how to run drugs for him, teaching them how to fight and how to shoot. And how when they were 17, they were given their first job. They had been working for Benny since making more money they could have ever made working a regular 9-5.   
Alana just sat there listening, blood boiling that they didn’t even try to do better. They were tricked by the money. The conversation eventually shifted to Alana telling Camren more about her life after leaving. After a couple of hours of talking, they dived back into memories of each other. Both sitting there blushing and grinning. 

Camren just smiled watching her talk and suddenly grabbing Alana’s chin. He held her face for a moment, finally going in for a kiss. A kiss they been fantasizing about for 20 years. A kiss that lasted what seemed like forever. Neither of them wanted it to end. Alana finally pulled back, “Do you wanna stay?” Alana asked.

“Do you want me to?”

“I wouldn’t ask if i didn’t want you to.” 

\-----

Current Time:

“I gotta head out. Apparently, there’s an important meeting.” Camren says.

“Hmm.. alright, then.” 

“Sorry.” He says standing and putting on his clothes. “I’ll text you when it’s done. You wanna do something later?”

“Sure. Like what though?”

“I don’t know. A movie or something.”

Alana gives the dorkiest smile, “Yeah, that’s fine.” 

She gets up to walk him to the door. Giving him a good and him giving her a kiss on the cheek, he leaves. Once he’s gone, she goes to the bathroom to start her morning routine.

\------

 

Camren pulls up to Brandon’s house. He walks in to see three of their boys in the living room.

“Aye. Where B?”

One of the guys tilts his head toward the kitchen.   
Camren walks into the kitchen to see Brandon, Dante and two more of their guys.

“Glad that you could finally join us bruh.” Brandon says looking at Camren with so much frustration in his eyes.

Camren rolls his eyes, “Man whatever. What’s so damn important?”

“We finally hacked the street cameras. We got some info on who might’ve popped Benny.” Dante says.

Camren takes two strides up to the table, “WHO?”

Brandon turns the iPad he has in his hands toward Camren, pointing at the screen. “This car pulled up and sat there for 30 minutes. Nobody get out but right after my Pops get shot, somebody in all black come out the spot and hop in the car. They pull off. I got my plug at the precinct looking up the plate now.”

Camren gets a text from Alana.  
Alana: Hey, I kinda wanna chill in today. What if I cook and we watch movies here?”  
Camren: Yeah, that’s cool.

“How you wanna do this?” Camren asked Brandon.

“Whoever the fuck got in that car, killed my pops. I ain’t showing they ass no mercy. They suffering.”

“I wouldn’t have it no other way.”

Brandon stands, rubbing his hand together. “Alright boys. Make sure yall phones stay on at all times. As soon as Lando hit me up with the info, we riding out.”

“Alright. Cool.” They all say in unison.

They all walk out going their separate ways.   
Camren figured the meeting would be longer, so with the extra time, he ran a few errands before heading back to Alana’s. Alana spent this time grocery shopping and making a Target run since it was wash day and she needed some hair products. 

When he arrived there, she had already started cooking-- fried chicken and waffles. That was always her favorite meal growing up. Her Auntie Lynda made it whenever she asked. She had music playing and Netflix up on the tv. She let him in and gave a him tight hug. Leading him into the kitchen, she got back to cooking as he sat at the counter.

“So… how was your meeting?”

“Same ‘ol shit. Just Brandon giving the rundown for the week.”

“I haven’t heard from him since last night. How is he?”  
“He’s good. Knowing him, he’s trying to give you space to kinda understand shit. He ain’t never been too pushy.”

“Hope you’re right. I mean… I just got back. I don’t wanna fight with him.”

“I know.”

Alana shakes her head. “I just… I didn’t see this for him. I didn’t see this for y’all.”

“I didn’t really see this for myself neither. But it’s easy. The money fast. Makes everything else look like bullshit.”

“I understand.”

Both of them remained silent as she finished cooking and made their plates. He carried their plates to the living room. Alana wasted no time digging into her plate as she let Camren find a movie. 

“Damn, girl. You couldn’t wait for the movie to start?”

Alana tried her best to keep the food in her mouth as she laughed. “Sorry. I’m hungry.”

“I can tell! Look like you almost bit your damn thumb off.”

‘Shut Up!” she says, pinching his arm.

Camren jumps up, “OH SHIT! Ohhh, my bad. Thought you was tryna bite me.” he smiles at her.

“FUCK YOU!” 

“Did that.”

Alana cuts her eye at him, “I’ve had enough of your shit already. Either we finna watch this movie or you can get out.”

“Damn. Chill with yo’ hungry ass. We’re about to watch the movie.”

“Birdbox? Really?”

“Yeah… I wanna know what all the memes are about.”

Alana shrugs, “whatever.”

They watch the movie, both giving their opinions for every scene. Mid movie, Alana found herself cuddled under Camren’s arm. They sat like this until the end of the movie and it was Alana’s turn to pick a movie. 

“Alright, enough of that.” she says, sitting up to grab the remote. “Time to watch some Kill Bill.”

Camren sucks his teeth.

“Is there a problem with Kill Bill?”

“Nope. I’m good” He throw his hands up in surrender.

“Good! It’s one of my favorites.”

Before she could hit play, she hears her phone ringing from the kitchen. She didn’t get to it in time before the ringing stops. She notices she has a missed call and 3 missed texted from Cali.   
She calls her back, but all Cali said before hanging up again was, “Check your text.”

Alana opens the messages.  
Cali: their latest info. <2 images attached>  
Cali: What you wanna do?  
Cali: LANA!!! 

Right as Alana was about to type her response, she gets another message from Cali.  
Cali: They on the move. 5 minutes out.

“FUCK!” Alana says to herself.

“Everything alright?” Camren ask.

“Uhh… yeah. I just have to make a phone call real quick.”  
Alana starts walking to her room, closing the door. She text Cali back,  
Alana: we’re gonna let this play out and we’ll follow accordingly. I’ll be up there in a second.

Alana heads over to her closet, pulling out a large black Nike duffle and setting it on the bed. She sits down for a moment to take a couple deep breathes. She gets back up, throws the duffle over her shoulder and heads for her bedroom door. She takes one last deep breath before opening her door and stepping into the halfway, walking toward the living room. 

“What you doin’? Camren asked, with a confused look on his face.

“Uhh… my tenant i told you about. She left a few things here and i packed them up in this. She coming up to get it. I told her I’d meet her at the elevators.”

Camren stands up, “I’ll come out there with you.”

“No no… sit down.” She says, waving her hand for him to sit back down. “It’s right up the hall. I’m sure I can take her little ass if she tried something.” she smirks.

Camren just stares at her for a moment. He could tell something was off with her but he didn’t want to ask. He nods his head, “hmm, alright.”  
He sits back down, watching her leave out and door closing behind her.

\-------

A few minutes pass by and Alana didn’t come back. Camren gets up, walking over to the door. When he opens it, he finds an empty hallway. Alana is nowhere to be found. He goes back in her apartment for his phone that was left on the kitchen counter. He had 9 text and 5 missed calls from Brandon and Dante. He ignore those to call Alana. She sends him to voicemail, which sends him into a panic.

“What the Fuck!” he says to himself.

Before he could call her back, she text him.  
Alana: Deny everything!  
Camren: Where are you?   
Alana: Do not tell them anything.

“This nigga on some bullshit.” he whispers to himself.

Then is when he finally opened the text from Brandon.   
Brandon: Aye man, where the fuck you at?  
Brandon: NIGGA CALL ME BACK! WE GOT SHIT TO DO!  
Dante: Cam. Call us back. We got info.  
Brandon: ANSWER YO FUCKING PHONE!  
Dante: B getting pissed dog. We all here, ready to ride out. Where tf you at?

Camren didn’t even get to read the rest before there was a knock at Alana’s door. He walks over to look in the peephole and he sees 4 figures in all black standing outside the door. He couldn’t make out all of the faces. They knock again and one of them saying, “Open up this fucking door Cam. I know you in there.”

The voice sounded like Brandon, so he opened the door. Confused and unaware of what’s going on.   
“Aye man… I can explain--” before Camren could finish, Brandon punches Camren in the face and rushes him back into the apartment. Both of them falling on the ground. Brandon is on top of Camren punching him over and over, but Camren is holding his own. 

“What the fuck are you doing man?” Camren yells.

Brandon stands up and looks back and gestures for the guys with him to come.  
“Bag this nigga.”

“BRO! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ON?”

The three guys come up to Camren. He tried to fight them off, but of course he was outnumbered. One tying his arms behind his back and one throwing a pillowcase over his head. The third man punches Camren four times before he loses consciousness. 

Brandon makes a phone call, “Clear the way. We heading down.”

The four of them drag Camren out. When they get to the parking structure, they throw him in the back of a black Tahoe and drive off. 

\------

When Alana stepped out into the hallway, she headed to the emergency staircase. She went up two flights and knocked on the door of an apartment. Cali opened the door and let her in. She dropped the duffle bag on the couch. Cali was already dressed and was putting her hair into two cornrows. Alana opened the bag and started undressing, putting in the black cargo pants and black tank that was in the bag. She tossed her curls up into a top knot bun. Taking a few deep breaths, she looks up at Cali.

“You good?” Cali asked.

“Yeah. I…I can’t lie Cal. I’m scared right now.”

“I understand.” 

Cali walks over to Alana, grabbing both sides of her face. “You are the strongest person I know. You’ve been through hell. I can’t promise that everything will be okay, but I know you will be and I’m right here.”

Alana smiled, rubbing the back of Cali’s hands. “I love you, Cal.”

“I love you too. Now let’s go handle this shit.”

Alana pulls out two berettas and two FN 5.7. Cali grabbed two silencers off of her kitchen counter. They put the guns in their belts and Alana put the duffle holding more weapons over her shoulder.

“The empty bags already in the car.” Cali says.

“Cool. You got the other phones?”

“Yeah. Give me yours.”

Alana gave Cali her phone. She turns both of their phones off and hid them. She comes back, putting on a black hoodie and grabs her own duffle bag.

“Let’s go.”

They walk out the door, going to the emergency staircase. They headed all the way down to the parking garage. They get into Cali’s matte black Audi R8. They sit and wait. After waiting for awhile, they see a few men get out of a black Tahoe on the opposite side of the garage and another Tahoe parked behind it. A couple of them walk inside of the building while two others stood by the elevator doors. Soon after, the elevator doors open they see Brandon with three man dragging out a body behind them. Cali looks over at Alana and reaches to hold her hand.

“He’s not dead Lana. Brandon wouldn’t do that.”

Alana stayed silent, trying to hold back her tears. Watching her loving and sweet big brother be a drug lord monster and the man she has completely fallin’ for was being dragged like a rag doll. She really didn’t know how to feel but Cali reassures her that she’s good.

“They wouldn’t bring him out like this if that was the case.”

Alana just nods her head, wiping the few tears that escaped. The same emotions and same face she had when she sat in her Auntie’s backseat as they left 18 years ago had returned. She remembered the pain and snapped right back.

“I’m good.” She turns her head to look at Cali with a smirk. “I’m always gonna be good.”

“That’s my girl.” Cali says, smiling.

They sit and watch as the men put Camren’s body in the back of the second truck. When all men were inside of the trucks, they both pull out of the garage. 

\---------


	5. SAVAGE : Chapter 5

Before picking Camren up, Brandon was at his home waiting for Lando to send him the information that he was waiting on. Hours had passed by and finally Lando reached out to Brandon. He sent him the info he found on the license plate Brandon asked about. He sent Brandon the name C. Savage and an address. Brandon wasted no time calling all of his soldiers. Everyone responded right away except for Camren. When everyone started showing up to the house and Camren still failed to answer his phone or respond to any messages, Brandon knew something was up. Dante started trying to contact him, but still nothing. 

Brandon had Dante look up Camren’s location of his burner phone. 

“We goin’ to get this nigga. He got me fucked up.” Brandon spat.

With that, everyone loaded their guns and headed out the house. Hopping into black trucks. They arrive to a tall building, pulling into a parking garage. 

“Aye! Ain’t this Cam car right here?” Dante ask, pointing out the window.

“Mhmm, fasho is.” Brandon says, looking out at the car.

Camren was one of the few people in the city with a new all white Mercedes Benz G-Glass. He had tinted windows and Ankh that hung from his rearview mirror. Camren always backed into parking spaces with his side mirrors turned in. They knew it was his car. 

“Pull around there to the back and kill the lights.” Brandon directs the driver.

They parked and everyone waited a few minutes for Brandon’s orders. Brandon was taking his time to work through all of the emotions going through him. His own best friend, the person he called his brother, not only left him hanging but from what he just discovered, was a trader. He took one last deep breath and sent the call for Dante and the two other in his car to get out and the other truck to sit tight. They get out and get into the elevator, going up.

\--------

The two Tahoe’s pulled up to the back of an old building that Benny had purchased a few months ago. Brandon was working on it to hopefully turn it into a rec center. It was the perfect place to do whatever he planned with no one being around. 

The cars pulled up and all of the men hopped out and two of them headed to the back to get Camren out. He had gain consciousness soon after being put in the back of the truck. He just listened out to see what was going on. They dragged him out to where they had a chair and rope waiting. They tied his hands and legs to the metal chair, leaving the pillowcase over his head. Four of the men in the first truck, pulled off and the last two sat back in the truck while Brandon and Dante prepared to ‘question’ Camren.

“Alright nigga, you ready to talk about this?” Brandon asked him, kneeling in front of him.

“Ain’t shit to talk about.” Camren says in a low growl. Alana’s text from earlier, sitting at the front of his mind.

“Listen man, you my fucking brother. I’m trying to give yo ass a chance to just come clean.”

“I said it ain’t shit to talk about.”

Brandon stands up, turning to Dante. Dante hands him some back gloves. When Brandon has the gloves on, he waste no time punching Camren a few times. Brandon laughs to himself, “I almost forgot. We was trained by the same nigga. You know not to talk, but I know it’s something that’ll make yo punk ass sing.”

Camren doesn’t say anything. His head just hangs low in the pillowcase. 

“Give me this nigga phone.” Brandon says to Dante.

He gives Brandon the phone and Brandon goes to his call list. Camren knows at any second Brandon will see that he’s been talking to Alana and know what’s been going on with them. Brandon is silent going through the phone. Camren and Dante could almost feel the rage beaming off of him.

“What you see man?” Dante ask.

Brandon doesn’t respond to him. He just walks back over to Camren, punching him over and over.

“MY FUCKING SISTER MAN? YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW? YOU SUPPOSE TO BE MY FUCKING BROTHER AND FUCKING MY LITTLE SISTER.”

He snatches the pillowcase off and Camren spits out blood, looking up at Brandon with the look of kill in his eyes. They have a stare off before Brandon kneels down again near him. 

“I’ll wait to whoop yo ass for that. So... you gonna tell me what happened the night my pops died?”

Camren sneers at Brandon, offended. “Nigga what? What the fuck are you talking about?.”

“Shit! You tell me.”

“You tripping nigga.”

Brandon stands up, clenching his fist. “Nah nigga. YOU TRIPPING!.”

Brandon walks back over to Dante asking for his iPad. Pulling up the street camera footage.

“Who car is this?” he asked Camren, showing him the footage he’d shown him earlier at their meeting, pointing at car in question.

“I don’t know.”

Brandon grabs Camren’s face, “Nigga, you lying.”

“I’m not fucking lying.” Camren says through clenched teeth.

Brandon punches Camren. 

“You really pushing my patience, bruh. 

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!”

“NIGGA YOU KILLED MY FUCKING DADDY!”

“I know you tripping now. Benny was like my daddy too. WHY THE FUCK WOULD I KILL HIM? YOU SOUND FUCKING STUPID!”

Brandon loses it and starts beating Camren almost inches from his life, knocking him and the chair over. Beating and stomping him. Dante just stands back watching, shaking his head. Suddenly, Dante sees a shadow on the side of him. When he turns around, he becomes face to face to a barrel of a gun. He throw his hands up in surrender as the person holding the gun grabs his collar and whispers for him to keep quiet. He is dragged out of site from Brandon and Camren.

“Brandon… BRANDON! I’m not calling yo’ fucking name no more.” a voice says, gaining Brandon attention.

“WHAT?” he barks out as he turns around. 

When he turns, he sees his sister standing there. A gun in hand and one on her hip. He starts walking slowly to her, nose flaring.

“Fuck is you doing here? You came to save yo little nigga?”

“You need to chill. You don’t even know what you’re doing.”

“I know EXACTLY WHAT I’M DOING.”  
“REALLY?! Because it look like some bullshit to me. This is your best friend.” she says as she points to Camren with her free hand.

“Nah, FUCK HIM. He ain’t shit to me no more. That nigga a snake and I ain’t even gon’ start on yo ass. Walking up in here strapped and shit. You tough now?”

Alana ignores his comments. Brandon looks around behind Alana, searching for Dante.

“Dante!”

“He’s a little preoccupied right now.” Alana says folding her arms, shifting her weight on her feet.

Brandon looks at her and turns back and walks toward Camren’s body laid on the floor, still tied to the chair. Brandon picks him and the chair up to sit upright. His face is completely bruised and bleeding. Alana’s heart drops has she finally gets a good look at his face. Kneeling down again in front of him.   
“Look who came to see you nigga. Say hi.”

Camren looks at Alana, “why are you here, Lana?”  
He sounded tired. 

“We all need to talk.” she says.

 

Right on time, a screeching noise brings their attention to Cali walking in with another chair. Brandon watches her walk in, looks over to Alana,

“Who the fuck is this bitch?” he ask.

“Whoa lil nigga. No need for name calling.” Cali says, sitting down in the chair next to Alana.

“Alana who the fuck is this?”

Alana looks between the two of them, “Brandon, meet Cali. Cali, meet Brandon.”

“Hey, Brandon.” she says, smiling and giving him a small wave.

“What is this?” he asked.

“Looks like a family meeting to me.”

“Cali, chill.” Alana says, putting her gun back into her hoster. 

“This ain’t the time to be talking, Lana. I got shit to do. Yo punk ass boyfriend over here, set up our daddy and killed him.”

“Yo daddy set himself up, Bran Bran.” 

Alana pinches the bridge of her nose. She was already over the back and forth between Cali and Brandon.

“Ain’t nobody talking to you!” he turns to look at Alana. “Why the fuck are yall here?”

“Family meeting nigga. Did you not hear me the first time?” Cali spits back.

“This ain’t no family meeting. I don’t fucking know you!”

“CAN Y’ALL STOP? PLEASE!” Alana shouts. She was completely fed up.

They both go silent. Camren coughs and spits out blood. Alana walks over to him to make sure he’s okay. Brandon turns to keep his eyes on her. Cali notices the gun sticking out of the back of Brandon’s pants, so she stands up putting up her guard, not sure what might happen. Once Alana knows he’s okay for the moment, she walks back between Brandon and Cali. 

“Lana, hurry up and say what you gotta say so I can get back to beating this nigga ass.”

“You’re done with that Brandon.”

“Ohhhh No I’m not! I’ma kill that dirty ass nigga.”

“Brandon. STOP IT!” Alana huffs, “B… Listen, there’s some shit about Benny you need to know before doing that.”

“What are you talking about Lana?”

“He wasn’t the man you think he was?” Cali says.

“Bro, I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to my sister.”

Alana and Cali just look at each and back to Brandon. Cali chuckles a bit and sits back down on the chair. 

“She’s your sister too.”

Brandon furries his brows, backing up from them. “Yo, what? Lana, stop wasting my time right now.”

“Brandon, listen to me.”

‘Nah. man. You trying to come up in here, which i would love to know how the fuck you know I’m here. But you come up in here talking this bullshit.”

“IT’S NOT BULLSHIT DOG!” Cali barks.

\----------


	6. SAVAGE : Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

**this chapter is a background chapter. Current time will pick back up in Chapter 7**

 

It didn’t take long for Alana to get adjusted to her new life. The first few years, it was just her and her Auntie Lynda. Alana was an amazing kid and she was beyond smart. She made her Auntie proud of good she was doing.

When Alana was 13, things changed. Lynda was traveling back and forth to Detroit and Alana couldn’t understand why. They always kept things open with each other, so she demanded her auntie to tell her what’s been going on. She wasn’t use to Lynda being away so much and having to stay with Lynda’s friend whenever she had to travel. Lynda knew she couldn’t keep what was happening from Alana. She would have had to find out eventually.   
Lynda made Alana’s favorite meal, chicken and waffles, and they sat down to talk.   
“Well baby girl, there is something I need to talk to you about.”

“Is it about why you always have to leave now?”

“Yes.” Lynda sat her fork down to give her full attention to Alana. “I’m just gonna go ahead and say it. You have a sister.”

“What?” Alana sat back in her chair, completely shocked. Almost not believing her auntie. But, one thing Alana knew is that her Auntie wouldn’t lie to her. She was always honest with her.

“Yeah… I just found out about a 3 months ago. She’s 13 just like you.”

Alana was speechless. She just sat there, taking in everything Lynda was saying. So Lynda continued, “She’s in foster care. A family wants to adopt her. So, to make sure she didn’t have any other family out here, they searched around and found your dad.”

“He’s not my dad.” Alana interrupted. 

Lynda nodded, respecting Alana’s words.

“How did you get involved? He wants you to take her too?” she asked.

“Well, he called to ask me for my help to close the case. We both know he’s not how he should be.”

“Did you see Brandon when you went there?”

“No. I didn’t see him or Benny. I just told him on the phone when he called that I would tell CPS that he wants to sign over his rights. But when i got there, I met her. Her name is Cali and I couldn’t just let her go. So I told the judge that I was her paternal Aunt and I would like to have custody of her and if anyone was to raise her, I feel like it should be me. A real family member, ya know? She said she’d consider it.”

“So now what?”

“Me and my lawyer had some papers drawn up for Benny to sign away is rights for her. And now, I’m waiting for the judge to give us her decision.”

“When do you find out?”

“Monday. I’ll be flying back there Sunday. I want you to come with me. You know...either way, I would like for you to meet her since she’s your sister. If that’s what you want?”

Alana sits there for a moment, pushing her food around with her fork. Lynda could tell she wasn’t sure how to respond.  
Alana looks up at her, opening her mouth to speak but closing it again.

“What is it?” Lynda asked.

Alana hesitates, “If I go, could I go see Brandon?”

“Umm.. I can’t make that promise. The relationship with your da--” Lynda stops herself. “...Benny is really messed up right now and I’m honestly not interested in fixing it. Other than the one phone call, we haven’t spoken.”

“Oh...okay…” Alana whispers.

“You don’t have to make a decision now. You can think on it.”

“I wanna go.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I wanna go. Even if I can’t see Brandon, I wanna meet her.”

Lynda gives a small smile. “Okay.”  
\-------

By the time Sunday came, Alana had changed her mind about going. All she could think about was what if the judge ruled for Cali to get adopted by the family that wanted her. She would’ve met her for no reason and she would become a distant memory just like her brother. She couldn’t handle that and Lynda understood. 

Monday afternoon, Lynda sent hourly text to Alana to keep her updated on things in court. Finally around 3 p.m, Alana received a text from her Auntie saying the judge ruled in her favor. Cali would be coming back to Florida with her and Alana will get to meet her sister. Though Alana had completely prepared for the worse, she was more than excited to have a sister. She constantly missed her brother and hated that they had no contact. Benny made sure of that. It wouldn’t just be her and Lynda anymore. 

When Lynda and Cali landed, Alana nervously waited for them at the door. She would text Lynda every 2 minutes asking how far she was from their home. When Lynda and Cali finally arrived and walked inside, all Alana could do was stare at her. 

“Cali, this is your sister, Alana.” Lynda says.

“Hi.” Cali’s voice was small and was very standoff-ish. 

Alana waved at her. Not really sure what to say. 

“Why don’t you show her to her room, Lana?”

Cali’s head turned quickly to Lynda. “I get my own room?”

“Yes. Maybe once we’re all settled in, we can go to Target and get some stuff to decorate it.” 

“C’mon.” Alana says, walking toward her. She reaches her hand out to hold Cali’s hand. She was hesitant at first, but grabbed her hand and the two girls headed up the stairs. Alana showed her a room directly next to hers that had a shared bathroom separating the two. Cali looked around as Alana sat on the bed, watching her. She just watched as Cali looked in the walk in closet and walking around the room, amazed at what she’s seeing.  
Cali joins Alana, sitting on the bed. There was bit of silence between them before Cali finally broke it.   
“So, Lynda says our dad is a deadbeat.”

“That’s one way of putting it, I guess.”

“How would you put it?”

“He’s a bitch.”

Cali giggled at Alana cussing, which made Alana smile. This time, a comfortable silence filled the room. 

“So what does Lynda do to have this big house?” Cali finally said.

“She’s the Vice President of some company. I don’t know. I don’t really understand what she do. I just know she makes a lot of money and has a lot of rich friends.”

“Oh.. You like living with her?”

“Yeah. She’s like the Mom I always wanted. She’s not mean but like, don’t get on her bad side.” Alana says, pointing a friendly finger at Cali.

Cali laughs a little before her laugh fades out. “What happened to your mom?” she asked quietly.

Alana wasn’t expecting her to ask that so she hesitated for a bit. She’s never been asked about her mom. Since she’s been with Lynda, Lynda’s been her mom and that’s what everyone assumed. Cali notices the long pause from Alana.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just… no one has ever asked me before about her. But umm… she died right after I was born. Something happened that the doctors couldn’t fix.”

“Oh.. I’m sorry.” Cali says feeling bad that she asked.

“I never met her, so I don’t really have much to feel about her. From what I know, Lynda is my mom and I’m okay with that.”

Cali nods. She opens her mouth to say something but it takes her moment before something comes out.   
“...mine is in rehab. At least that’s what the social worker told me.”

Lynda called the girl down so they could head out to Target and few other stores to Cali whatever she needed. While out, Lynda notices how quickly the two sisters were bonding. Talking about their favorite shows, music and Alana promising to show Cali around to all of her favorite places.

\-------

Cali’s mom had been struggling with drugs since Cali was an infant. She used drugs to cope with what happened between her and Benny. 

Before Alana and Cali were born, Benny was married to Alana’s mother, Avery. Though Avery was the only woman Benny had ever loved, he didn’t always do right by her. He had his times where he stepped out on her. Benny had an affair with a woman named, Michelle. This affair lasted about year until Michelle became pregnant. This shook Benny and he told Michelle that they couldn’t be together anymore. He assumed she would get an abortion if he wasn’t around. To make sure she couldn’t contact him, he blocked her and changed his number. He knew that would break up his family with Avery and that’s one person he didn’t want to lose. 

Thinking that everything was back to normal, a few months later, Avery told him that she was pregnant with their second child, but Benny’s guilty conscious got the best of him. He convinced himself that Avery found out about Michelle and cheated on him for revenge. But when Avery didn’t make through delivery with Alana, he didn’t want to abandon the baby without proof she cheated, but because he had his doubts, he still treated Alana poorly. Her looking just like Avery was a constant reminder that he didn’t know the truth. Soon after Alana was born, Michelle was able to get Benny’s contact info again and tried her best to get him to help her with their child. He refused over and over. Michelle was struggling to take care of her and Cali on her own. She turned to drugs to deal with the depression she had fell into while trying. 

When Cali was 5, CPS had taken her and she was put into the system. Bouncing around foster care until she was 12 when she met the family that wanted to adopt her. She was with them for a year. With every foster care adoption, they reach out to the parents. Michelle made the tough decision to let her daughter go. She knew she could never give her what she wanted or needed and she hated herself for that. Michelle told the court about Cali’s dad, Benny. When they reached out to him, he reached out to Lynda. Lynda had many lawyer friends that could clear this up. He didn’t want or need to government finding out about his “business” and Lynda could make sure of that. 

When he called Lynda for help, she helped him sign over his rights of Cali but Lynda being Lynda, she couldn’t watch Cali being taken away with a random family. This was her niece and even though she had just found out about her, she wanted to be the one to raise her, just as she was doing for Alana. Lynda stepped up in court to say she wanted to adopt Cali. She shared that she is raising Cali’s sister already and felt it was best for them to be together and with a few weeks of court dates, the judge ruled it best that Cali go with her blood relative, Lynda.

\-------

Alana and Cali became inseparable. Being only 3 months apart, they were almost like twins. They told each other everything and did everything together. They were amazing kids apart but they thrived together. 

Soon after the girls both turned 14, Lynda started dating her boyfriend, Jackson. The girls approved of him immediately. They loved Jackson and loved seeing their Auntie happy with him. Two years later, Lynda and Jackson decided to get married and they soon had their first child together, making them a family of 5. When their son was born, Jackson proposed an idea to Lynda, Alana and Cali. He wanted to make this family official and asked if they would allow him to adopt them as well and become their dad. They didn’t even have to discuss it. Within a few months, it was done. Alana and Cali were officially Alana Savage and Cali Savage. 

Lynda and Jackson soon went on to have twins. They all moved into a bigger house and honestly, Alana and Cali couldn’t have asked for a better family. They were more than happy with how life turned out for them.  
\-----

Alana and Cali were wrapping up their senior year in high school. Sitting in the living room, looking at prom dresses when Alana received a new friend request on Facebook. It was Brandon. She hadn’t seen or talked to him since she left Detroit. Seeing his face hit her like a ton of bricks. Her page was locked, so he couldn’t see much of hers but his was open. She searched all through his page. Seeing pictures of him with friends and his girlfriend. But, the ones with Benny sent fire through her blood. She had forgotten how much she really hated him.

As she was going through more pictures, Cali notices something isn’t right with her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked Alana.  
Alana turned her laptop over to show cali a picture of Brandon and Benny at Brandon’s high school graduation. As Cali is going through some pictures herself, Alana get a notification of a new message.

“He sent you a message.” 

Cali just watches Alana as she snatches her laptop and goes to open the message. 

Brandon Smith: I can’t believe I finally found you. I miss you so much Lana. 

As Alana stared at the screen, her eyes started to water. Cali goes to snatch the laptop and closing it and setting it aside.

“Wait until you’re okay. I don’t want you crying.”

Alana doesn’t say anything. The tears just start to roll down her cheeks. Cali grabs her to comfort her.

“MA!” Cali calls out to Lynda.

Lynda comes into the living room. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

Again, Alana doesn’t say anything.

“Brandon found her on Facebook and messaged her.”

Lynda sits next to Alana, hugging her. “What did he say?”

“Nothing really. He said he misses me.”

No one says anything after that. Lynda and Cali just hold her, letting her cry. Once she calms down a bit, she says, “I can’t do this right now.” She gets up and goes upstairs to her room.  
\-------

Later that night, Alana logged back into facebook and made the decision to delete the message from Brandon. She opted to just let the friend request sit for awhile. She didn’t know if talking to Brandon would be a small thing or if it would lead to Benny and honestly, she wasn’t ready to find out. She was happy in her life. Her and her sister were preparing for prom and graduation. She loved her brother and missed him just as much as he missed her. But, her hurt was still there.

Closing her laptop, Cali knocks on Alana’s open door.

“You okay?”

Alana looks up at her with a small smile, “Yeah.”

Cali comes all the way and sits on the foot of Alana’s bed. “I hate seeing you cry. If talking to him does that, I don’t think you should.”

“I deleted the message.”

“Okay.” Cali nods. She gets up to leave. “I’ll let you be. If you need me, you know where to find me.”

\----------

Cali was doing great in her graduate program for criminal justice. Alana had struggled a bit and dropped out of college and started a creative art agency with her and Cali’s best friend. The two of them were thriving. 

Cali started to notice a switch in Alana. She had become distant from her and her work. She would sleep all hours of the day and from what Cali could see, Alana barely ate much. As her sister, she had to find out what was going on with her, so she sat her down one night to get to the bottom of it.

“Alana, you haven’t been the same and I really need to know what’s going on with you.”

“I’m alright.”

“You’re lying to me.”

“No, Im--”

Cali cut her off, knowing she was lying. “I always know when you’re lying. You forgot who I was?”

“No.” Alana whispers.

“What’s wrong?”

Alana knew she wouldn’t be able to get out of this with Cali. She had to tell her. She hesitates a bit, trying to choose her words. “Awhile back, Brandon reached out to me again.”

Cali didn’t speak. She just watched Alana closely as she listened.

“...I talked to him for a bit. It felt good at first. But, he tried to convince me that we should try to see each other. I was down with that until he said something about telling Benny. I told him not to say shit to him and Benny aint got shit to do with us seeing each other. He started trying to tell me how Benny is our dad. He’s done some fucked up shit in the past but he’s not the same guy. He said he forgave him for what he did and I should too.”

Cali was raging and couldn’t hold her comments in anymore, “I don’t know Brandon like you do, but he sound like a fucking dumbass. WHO THE FUCK IS HE TO TELL YOU WHO YOU CAN FORGIVE. HE AIN’T THE ONE THAT GOT PACKED UP AND SHIPPED OFF. BENNY STILL THE SAME BITCH AND ALWAYS GON’ BE THE SAME BITCH ASS NIGGA THAT LEFT TWO OF HIS KIDS OUT TO DRY. YOU AIN’T FORGIVING THAT NIGGA.” 

Alana is sitting there emotionless. She can’t blame Cali for being mad. Even though Cali was only 3 months older than Alana, she was always very overprotective of Alana. She never let anyone even look at Alana wrong without snapping on them or breaking a few faces. Alana also knew how right Cali was about Benny. She knew he couldn’t have changed. If he did, he would’ve been reached out to them. 

“...Brandon can suck my fucking ass.” Cali continued. “Benny is his fucking daddy. He can forgive that nigga all he want, but he has no say say on what you do over here. Fuck him man. You know what, let me hush. He say anything else?”

“No. I pretty much told him what you just said. I’m not forgiving him for what he did. There’s no coming back from that. Benny was suppose to be my father and love me and protect me. He didn’t do any of that. I know who Benny really is and he’s trash. Brandon ain’t wanna hear that so we stopped talking. He tried to say something to me a few days later like nothing ever happened, but i just deleted him.”

Cali just shakes her head. “Good. He has his head so far up Benny’s ass, he can’t even see the truth. Fuck them man.”  
Cali moves close to Alana, putting her arm around her, hugging her. “I got you. If you don’t have nobody the fuck else, you got me.”

Alana hugs Cali back, thanking her. “I love you, Cal.”

“I love you more.”

\-------

Alana had started to get better. She was back on a regular sleeping schedule and she was eating again but she took her time getting back to work. Cali encouraged her to take her time to figure it all out. But, Cali couldn’t let the situation between Alana and Brandon go. She thought about it for weeks, which turned into months. She decided to start looking more into Benny and all of his business. 

She found out that of course he was still pushing drugs throughout Detroit, but over the years, he had become the biggest, richest drug dealer in Michigan. He had made his way into Ohio and Illinois. He was pushing so much that he had invested into many different businesses. But something stood out to her. Many of his businesses were places for children--arcades, recs and even a gymnastics gym. 

“Oh, so you can look for all the city kids but not your own. Punk ass nigga.” she said to herself as she dived deeper into Benny’s background. She found a bunch of information that proved her and Alana was right about him. He was the same trash man. With every new fact she found, she was more pissed and her hatred for Benny grew to new heights. She definitely hated him more than Alana. 

Once Cali had gathered enough information on Benny, she told Alana everything. Sitting on their couch, she showed her every document she found on him.

“Wow! He’s even worse than I thought.” Alana said.

“Yeah. But, look at this.” Cali pulled out a paper, handing it to Alana. 

“What is this?” 

“My mama is in prison on a drug charge because of him.”

“Cal…” Alana says with sympathy in her voice. She reaches to rub Cali’s back. Cali turns, facing away from her sister and wipes the tears from her face.

Cali turns slowly back toward Alana, “He gon’ pay. She doing 17 and it’s his fault.”

\---------


End file.
